lesday • December 2, 1997
O The Battalion
PINION
i/Vanted: Male Escort
Mminatinggender bias in Corps service exemplifies practicing political correctness
Chris
Huffines
columnist
V dark and lonely night.
The wind is howling. A
silent sliver of moonlight
ts Its deathly, silver pallor
I oss the faded concrete as a
e, Solitary figure hurries
l oss campus.
Behind the figure, the quick
p ol shoe on ground is
trd. Someone, something is
:re: The figure begins to
try, all but running in haste
get away, to get anywhere
m the danger behind.
Heart racing, the figure races toward a lit door,
eeping the door open, he hurries inside, safe at last.
This is a familiar story to over half the student
dy here at Texas A&M, the story of fear and the bit-
denial of protection while walking across campus,
tile women enjoy the protection of the Corps of
det’s Escort Service, we men are forced to walk in
ir every night. Men’s rights are being violated, and
one but men can regain them. The Corps Escort
rvice unfairly discriminates against men, and it
ist stop.
Forget the fact almost 95 percent of sexual assaults
; against women; men cannot be denied their
uality. Forget muggers and murderers sitting in the
adows view women as easier targets than men;
an demand equality. And forget common sense
|/s both the entire idea and this column are really
ipid; political correctness requires everything be-
le equal.
| If men are not allowed to make use of the Escort
:e, think of all the damage that could be caused,
■the Fish Drill Team fiasco, the entire Escort Ser
vice would have to be disbanded. Then a twenty-
thousand student class-action lawsuit, spearheaded
by F. Lee Bailey and Johnny Cochran, would be
slapped on A&M.
The University would be dragged through a
slow trial full of weeping male Aggies testifying
about how they cannot sleep without a night light
because of the severe emotional trauma suffered
while walking across campus alone at night. And
then the parade of psychiatrists testifying to ex
actly how horrible it is for their patients to have
suffered so horribly every night. That, and the in
famous, “Men were not picked, you must con
vict.” closing statement would create a mockery
of justice the likes of which O.J. Simpson would
cringe at.
Then there would be the appeals, the picketing,
the mass of men leading lives of quiet desperation. It
would be a circus.
In the end, even the men who would use the Es
cort Service would look back at the entire situation
and shake their heads, wishing for OF Army days,
when things were a little less equal, but made a lot
more sense.
All of that pain and misery would be irrelevant,
though, because there would be equality. No one
would feel left out, and the world would be one step
closer to Utopia., which is unachievable, but that’s re
ally not the issue.
No, the fact is measureless human sorrow and mis
ery would have been caused in the name of an un
reachable ideal and political correctness.
Men of the world, unite.
CAn YOO UIPvLK
ff\g rf\Y
Chris Huffines is a sophomore speech
communications major.
^3
terrorist environmentalists
leserve punishment for actions
Downy
Ferguson
columnist
S wooping
in on
unsus-
pci ting men
and women
with me
chanical pre
cision, the
black-uni
formed
troops
rushed into
the front
room and seized the building.
I Though it sounds like some-
thing out of “PTTS-The Movie,”
tlie Waco-style raid was instead
launched by members of an en
vironmental fringe group who
have now sued the government
for damages they incurred dur
ing the highly illegal raid.
Environmental terrorists
with the ultra-radical group
jEarth First!” masterminded a
faramilitary raid on the Eureka,
California, office of Congress
man Frank Riggs.
I Clad in black, some wearing
ski masks, the “Green Gestapo”
smashed open the front door,
. issaulted the frightened em
ployees, chained themselves to
a large tree stump they placed in
the center of the office and
linked arms in metal sleeves
failed “lock boxes.”
I Police officers soon arrived
on the scene and asked the
friminals to leave.
I The eco-ten orists were re
peatedly warned of the possibili
ty pepper spray would have to be
Hsed to disperse the lawbreakers,
*et they rehised to leave.
1 After several hours, numer
ous requests to surrender
peacefully and repeated re
fusals, officers dabbed some
spray under the eye of one pro
tester and asked them to leave
again. Again they refused. Offi
cers were forced to spray four
ntore Earth First! militants to
break up the riot.
I The only thing more dis
gusting than the toadlickers’
siege on Congressman Riggs’
qffice was the eco-thugs’ reac
tion to police efforts to break
tip the attackers.
1 The toad-licking treehug-
gers have sued, claiming their
civil rights were violated by
the police officers called to the
scene. Compared to the rights
they have taken from the
American people, these envi
ronmentalists’ sacrifice was
irsignificant.
I For the past three decades,
they have robbed honest
Americans of their homes,
their property and their
livelihoods. The reign of ter
ror environmentalists have
unleashed on innocent prop
erty owners reads like an Or
wellian novel and dwarfs
anything the Green Gestapo
has experienced.
In the nearby Texas hill
country, Marj and Roger
Krueger bought a $53,000 lot
were they planned to finally
build their dream home.
According to The Wall Street
Journal, they and other citizens
were stopped from building
their homes after an endan
gered golden-cheekedwarbler
was found in a canyon next to
their land.
A congressional report found
James and Mary Mills of Broad
Channel, New York, were fined
$30,000 for building a deck onto
their home because it cast a
shadow on a supposed wetland.
Homeowners often are sued
and fined by environmentalists
for removing trash, adding dirt
or plowing wet areas of their
property in a heavy-handed,
zealous attempt to protect
“wetlands,” even if they are on
private property.
Eco-thugs even had Ronald
Angelocci thrown in jail for
putting dirt in his backyard. A
close family member suffered
from severe allergies and life-
threatening asthma, prompt
ing Angelocci to fill in the wet,
low area where the pollenous
plants grew.
Obsessed with government
power and indifferent to human
suffering, environmentalists
waged a legal jihad against him
and had him jailed for violating
the Clean Water Act.
Resurrecting visions of KGB
raids, two dozen state and feder
al agents swooped in on the
Bakersfield, California, farm of
Taung Ming-Lin, racing about
his property and taking pictures.
Federal agents somehow found
out Lin accidentally had run
over a Tipton kangaroo rat while
plowing his field.
Trying him like a murderer,
government prosecutors told the
court Lin, “did knowingly take
and aid and abet the taking of an
endangered species of wildlife,
to wit, Tipton kangaroo rats.”
The zealous fervor with
which environmentalists crucify
those who disturb kangaroo rats
is frightening. In fact, according
to The Washington Times, shin
ing a flashlight on a rat is pun
ishable by one year in jail and a
$10,000 fine.
The golden calf of environ
mentalism is undoubtedly the
spotted owl. Government ef
forts to save the supposedly en
dangered animal have cost over
30,000 jobs, reduced lumber
harvests by 3.9 billion board
feet and closed off over 4.2 mil
lion acres.
Thanks to environmentalists,
the cost of building a 2,000-
square-foot home skyrocketed
$4,000 in only three years, forc
ing 80,000 potential homeown
ers out of the market.
Adding insult to injury is
the fact spotted owl are by no
means endangered. According
to the Audubon Society, 1,500
spotted owl pairs must thrive
to stave off the species extinc
tion. Steven Self and Thomas
Nelson, researchers for the en
vironmentally progressive
Sierra Pacific company, find
close to 8,000 pair live in Cali
fornia alone.
The liberal New Republic
found “as many as 10,000 pair
may exist...”
Both figures by environmen
tally friendly sources are three
to five times as many needed to
protect the species. Neverthe
less, eco-thugs continue their
quest to harass honest Ameri
cans and inflict severe econom
ic damage in the name of
Mother Earth.
The innumerable lawsuits,
police raids, property seizures,
loss of jobs and increased con
sumer prices are far more seri
ous than the temporary dis
comfort of belligerent
lawbreakers who raid offices
and destroy property.
In a movement rife with mili
tant extremism, Earth First!
thugs are the Hezbollah of the
environmentalist movement.
Often destroying property, sab
otaging bulldozers and pound
ing nails into trees to cause
chainsaws to explode, it’s about
time Earth First! got a taste of its
own medicine.
After three decades of ter
rorizing property owners, de
stroying jobs, robbing people
of their livelihood and exploit
ing unchecked government
power to fulfill their whims, the
eco-thugs who invaded Con
gressman Riggs’ got what they
deserved.
Donny Ferguson is a junior
political science major.
Mail Call
Worthy purpose
served by camp
In response to Kendall Kelly’s col
umn ‘The Crying Game:'
I would like to say “Keep your
opinion to yourself”. For eighteen
years my mother loved and cared
for me, and when I was accepted
to A&M, she was the proudest
mother in the world. For weeks
she told everyone her daughter
was going to be a first-generation
Aggie, but as the time for me to
leave grew near her joy turned to
sadness. After I left she would of
ten call just to see what I was do
ing or to ask me if I had eaten.
This does not mean she is med
dling in my business. It just means
she cares, because for the past
eighteen years she had known
where I was, who I was with and
when I would be home. Just be
cause I am off at college she is
suppose to quit worrying about
me? If the Aggie Mom’s Fish Camp
helps mothers such as my own to
cope with the stress and sadness
they feel when us Aggies leave,
then what is the point in bad-
mouthing it?
Many mothers question them
selves as to whether or not they
did the best they could in raising
us, and if we are able to make the
right choices without them being
there to guide us. The camp is
only for the mothers in helping
them deal with what they are go-
IRAQI
WEAPONS
FACILITY
ing through. I am very sorry
Kendall Kelly would be embar
rassed if her mother attended the
camp, because I would be proud
if my mother was to attend the
Aggie Mom’s Fish Camp.
Teri Brazelton
Class of '00
Ridiculing moms
abuses position
It seems to me columnist
Kendall Kelly has left her compas
sion and manners back where she
came from. If she can’t find any
thing better to do than ridicule a
few loyal Aggie Moms, then she
should utilize her “talents” else
where. Just because someone has
the privilege of writing for a daily
newspaper, that does not give them
the right to act rude and conde
scending to their readers and the
very public that supports them.
Bryan Alan Hill
Class of’95
University of New Mexico
Graduate Student
Speech article
not without errors
I was glad to see James Lyon’s
presentation make the front page
of The Battalion. Most of the arti
cle accurately reports the contents
of his talk.
However Mr. Lyons was mis
quoted on one not-so-trivial matter.
The quote in the insert box of
the article says: “The public is less
interested on what is going out of
the national forests and more on
what is on the roll of film from the
recreation parks (sic).”
As Under Secretary of United
States Department of Agriculture,
with oversight of the Forest Ser
vice and Natural Resource Con
servation Service, I’m sure he said
“...rolls of film from the national
forests.”
Neither the USDA Forest Service
or the USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service (or any other
federal agency, including the Unit
ed States Department of Interior,
National Park Service) manage any
category of lands or waters known
as “recreation parks.”
This is not written as a letter to
the editorial staff. It is not written
to criticize the work of Ms. Becks.
It only serves to bring the quote to
your attention so that the informa
tion can be verified and corrected.
Myron F. Floyd, Ph. D
Assistant Professor
Department of Recreation, Park
and Tourism Sciences
Volleyball wins
deserve coverage
I just finished looking through
today’s Batt and again found my
self disappointed.
You gave coverage to a mens’
pre-conference basketball game,
yet ignored the final two Big 12
matches of the Volleyball Team.
You also skipped over the fact the
Volleyball team is hosting the
first and second rounds of the
NCAA tournament.
Your reporting on the last two
home games included running the
same photo with two different cap
tions and reporting a match the
girls won in four was won in three
games. This is a top-twenty pro
gram and deserves at least equal
attention to the basketball pro
grams. Speaking of the basketball
programs, there was no mention of
the women’s Aggie basketball
team’s weekend play; could this be
a gender thing?
Bill Coady
Lecturer
Dept, of Health and Kinesiology
..\MRMER, WARMER,
WARMS?...
mm
fti